Body-Mind Medicine Interventions in COVID-19 Place Confinement for Mental, Physical and Spiritual Wellbeing

Abstract

The SARS-COV-2 virus has changed people’s lives and caused significant public health issues. The lockdown implemented by several governments across the globe has raised serious concerns on mental and physical wellbeing. Doctors, nurses and other COVID-19 frontline workers being put under extreme pressure to attend to patients’ health are being impacted by high stress levels which can result in burn-out and the inability to cope with the situation. This paper draws on multi-disciplinary research including complementary, traditional and integrative medicine, behavioral medicine, and social and environmental psychology to develop and propose a single integrative model of wellbeing encompassing dimensions of mental, physical and spiritual wellbeing in a pandemic context. The article discusses COVID-19 place confinement as a context to deliver body-mind medicine interventions in this challenging time. The aim is to provide the required support to promote behavior change for better public health outcomes. A range of cognitive behavioral therapies including psycho-social, psycho-educational, relaxation, meditation and nature therapies are discussed. Promoting alternative forms of traditional, complementary and integrative medicine in the local, global communities are discussed as preventive and sustainable measures to improve public health and wellbeing aligning with Global Health and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This has important implications for people’s wellbeing and quality of life during and post the COVID-19 pandemic.

Place Affect Interventions During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…For instance, individuals could develop higher levels of place affect for their neighborhood parks during the pandemic and enjoy the health and well-being benefits of connecting to nature (Ramkissoon et al, 2018). Spending time in nature can also generate intentional physical exercise that is being highly recommended by health specialists and in complementary and integrative medicine (Ramkissoon, 2021). It is noted, however, that being place-confined over time can also generate conflict among people living together and impact on mental health and well-being, bringing counterproductive effects such as an increase in anxiety and stress (Husky et al, 2020;Prime et al, 2020) and breaking policy guidelines.…”

“…This will require interventions targeted at promoting positive place affect, which may yield positive well-being outcomes in the post-pandemic era. Not only the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is a medical and economic crisis but it can also have key declines in the subjective wellbeing of the people, and this calls for alternative and integrative medicine practitioners to enhance the coping skills of the people through positive affect (Ramkissoon, 2021;Zacher and Rudolph, 2021).…”

“…We will need global collaborative efforts to design a roadmap to prioritize the place affect interventions in the poor sectors where the well-being and mental health of the people are at risk (Ramkissoon, 2021(Ramkissoon, , 2022. Evidence suggests that elderly people who find their environmental surroundings to be pleasant get physically more active through engagement in activities (Mahmood et al, 2012).…”

Social Bonding and Public Trust/Distrust in COVID-19 Vaccines

“…Human-to-human interactions are known to have brought numerous health benefits [17]. Social bonding and engagement can help the global population cope with the pandemic by building confidence in COVID-19 vaccines and hence encourage vaccine uptake [18][19][20][21].…”

“…However, to date, there is little evidence on how health systems influence public trust in vaccination and how it can be re-built if compromised [34]. While maintaining the focus on building public trust [18][19][20][21] to reduce COVID-19 vaccine confidence gaps remain fundamental, it is cautioned, however, that social bonding can also bring distrust and vaccine hesitancy if the 'vaccine meanings' formed collectively in social groups are unclear and biased.…”